facebook application development

Last week we covered the ongoing wall spam problem on Facebook with the Pillow Fight application being one of the primary sources of the spam. We weren’t aware that there’s a way to block the spam, however the developer of the Pillow Fight application commented on our story and provided directions for turning off pillow fight wall posts. We explain how to block the wall posts from Pillow Fight below.

Prior to our explanation, I thought it would be important to emphasize that this is not a resolution for blocking all wall spam. Unfortunately Facebook doesn’t have a way to turn off application wall posts from friends so this only works with the Pillow Fight application. The fact that this bare bones page exists within the Pillow Fight application highlights a significant flaw in the Facebook Platform. My guess is that this will be resolved within the coming weeks.

So how do you stop your friends from posting annoying Pillow Fight wall posts on your profile? It’s pretty easy. All you need to do is visit the Pillow Fight opt-out page. Then click on “Do not let my friends post to my wall” (as pictured below). That’s it! You’ve now successfully opted out from having your friends post on your wall.

The only problem with this solution? There’s no guarantee that it will work as it’s at the developer’s discretion. Given that the Pillow Fight developer told us how to block their own application we can only assume that they are being honest. As I mentioned already, there’s a very good chance Facebook will stop the application wall spam in the near future as it’s degrading the overall experience for users.

Also since publishing details of wall spam we’ve only seen an increase in the volume of it. Are you annoyed by the Facebook wall spam?

Dawn is using RockYou’s Pieces of Flair application to promote its Dawn Saves Wildlife campaign and the Everyday Wildlife Champions Facebook page. Users can spread word of the education and wildlife rescue initiative by sharing the Pieces of Flair — the app features some of the animals that Dawn dishwashing soap has helped clean after the wildlife has been caught in oil spills.

The campaign gives users a chance to learn more about the programs that are helping wildlife, as well as offering information on where people can visit the animals or start their own efforts to help the cause. Dawn is also currently running a promotion that donates $1 from the sale of special edition bottles of their dish soap to the Marine Mammal Center and the International Bird Rescue Research Center. The total potential donation is $500,000.

“Dawn has been focused on keeping the line between branding and cause clear. While Dawn is the driving factor behind the program’s success, it is ultimately the passion for wildlife conservation that drives the consumer,” said Susan Baba, external relations manager, Procter & Gamble. “Working with RockYou has helped Dawn raise awareness of this wildlife conservation effort and invite consumers to join the Everyday Wildlife Champions movement. In two months, 11,000 fans have joined the page and are actively discussing wildlife issues and events across the country. In addition, over $50,000 in donations has been activated online at www.dawnsaveswildlife.com.”

Dawn and RockYou launched the campaign in July, and more than 1.3 million Pieces of Flair were shared among Facebook users in the first three weeks.

Tattoodle, an app for creating and sharing virtual tattoos, and posting them on your profile, has gotten as popular as real tattoos over the summer. It grew from 891,000 monthly active users three months ago to 2.76 million a month ago and 4.24 million today. It added 104,000 new users just yesterday and 542,000 in the last week.

The basic idea is not new, so it’s interesting to see this app growing. The brightly-colored and widely divergent styles virtual types tattoos may have a special allure. The app lets you choose from categories of tattoos like “animals,” “creepy,” “man’s ruin,” “nautical,” and “skulls.”

The developer behind the app is called, interestingly, Make The Web Better. The company site says that it makes its money from a browser toolbar called Fast Browser Search. “It is through revenues generated by search that our Company is able to offer and continually enhance our world-class products free-of-charge,” the site says. While using the app, it is easy to navigate to a web page that also offers virtual tattoos but cleverly disguises a “Make Tattoodle my homepage” option into the background of the page. As the site explains, you first click through to add your tattoos (and maybe make Tattoo your homepage), then you’ll see its Fast Browser Search bar installed.

So, it appears Tattoodle is heavily monetizing through toolbars – a practice which can be lucrative, but has been historically criticized for overly aggressive advertising practices.

The Google-led Android mobile operating system is getting a new Facebook application today, according to a number of Android-focused blogs. Facebook has been planning a mobile-themed event for this evening, so it appears word got out early. While I’m not currently seeing the app in the Android Market app store, screenshots (including the ones you see here) are already public. Update: You can find it on Facebook here, although it still isn’t showing up in the Market.

Facebook has confirmed the launch of the new app with us. Here’s what the official blurb about the app says, according to Android Guys:

Facebook for Android™ makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. You can share status updates from your home screen, check out your news feed, look at your friends’ walls and user info. Share photos from your phone and can even look up up to 125 friends’ phone numbers from the home screen.

We’ll be taking a closer look at it tonight.

Rumors have been going around for months about a Facebook-Android app; some have wondered about the partnership given the competitive positions of Google and Facebook.

Meanwhile, Facebook has also been upping its mobile effort. Last week, it released Facebook Connect for mobile web services — and soon, apps. Through Connect, third parties will be able to access user data from Facebook and enable two-way interactions so users can communicate back to the site. At least one third party, social game developer Playfish, has had their own, unofficial implementation of Connect for months.

Facebook has also been building apps for a wide variety of phones and operating systems, including for Nokia’s N97 and the extremely popular iPhone application.